10 Pounds Sterling 1942, Kingdom of Great Britain

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Description

Watermark:

The inscriptions:

On top - Bank of Ireland.

Bottom - 10 Pounds.

Avers:

Two statues of Hibernia (on left and right sides) - female personification of Ireland. The rudder in her hand symbolizing Ireland in control of her own destiny.

Hibernia as a national personification representing Ireland appeared in numerous cartoon and drawings, especially in the nineteenth century.

As depicted in frequent cartoons in Punch, a magazine outspokenly hostile to Irish nationalism, Hibernia was shown as "Britannia's younger sister". She is an attractive, vulnerable girl. She is threatened by manifestations of Irish nationalism such as the Fenians or the Irish National Land League, often depicted as brutish, ape-like monsters. Unable to defend herself, Hibernia is depicted turning to the strong, armoured Britannia for defence. John Tenniel, now mainly remembered as the illustrator of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, produced a number of such depictions of Hibernia.

At times nationalist publications (such as the Land League and Parnell's United Ireland newspaper) did use the image of Hibernia. However, possibly because of the pro-union publications' adoption of the "helpless" image of Hibernia, nationalist publications would later use Erin and Kathleen Ni Houlihan, as personifications of Irish nationhood. Although Irish Nationalists did continue to use the terms "Hibernia" and "Hibernian" in other contexts, such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians. A statue, derived from an original by Edward Smyth and depicting a more confident Hibernia (with harp and spear), stands in the central position of three atop the General Post Office in Dublin.

Centered and multiplied on top are the heads of Medusa (Gorgoneion). In Ancient Greece, the Gorgoneion (Greek: Γοργόνειον) was a special apotropaic amulet showing the Gorgon head, used most famously by the Olympian deities Athena and Zeus: both are said to have worn the Gorgoneion as a protective pendant (remedy for the evil eye).

In Greek mythology Medusa (Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress") was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with a hideous face and living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazers on her face would turn to stone. Most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, though the author Hyginus (Fabulae Preface) makes Medusa the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. The 2nd-century BCE novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion.

Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion.

Denominations in numerals are on right and left sides (centered), in words on right and left sides (centered and in lower corners).

Revers:

In rosette is, again, sitting Hibernia with harp.

Denominations in numerals and in words are centered.

Comments:

The Bank of Ireland (Irish: Banc na hÉireann) is a commercial bank operation in Ireland and one of the traditional "Big Four" Irish banks.

Historically the premier banking organisation in Ireland, the Bank occupies a unique position in Irish banking history. At the core of the modern-day group is the old Bank of Ireland, the ancient institution established by Royal Charter in 1783.

Although the Bank of Ireland is not a central bank, it does have Sterling note-issuing rights in the United Kingdom. While the Bank has its headquarters in Dublin, it also has operations in Northern Ireland, where it retains the legal right (dating from before the partition of Ireland) to print its own banknotes. These are pound sterling notes and equal in value to Bank of England notes.